theHotHead wrote:Your opinion and of course you are entitled to it. However I do want to take issue with your comment that he has only been able to spend money for the past 4/5 years. He spent money before, he just spent it badly and lets not forget our spiralling wage bill - with worse quality players coming in to the club.
Finally not being able to spend money doesn't excuse his numerous tactical defficiencies and dufusness. So in my opinion, it was more like a bad 8 years !!
I would say that we were only able to spend big per se on one player when we bought Mesut. Our transfer record at the time was still Arshavin/Wiltord/Santi at around £15m. By that point Chelsea already spent double that on Drogba in 04/05, Liverpool spent ~£30m on Torres in 07/08, United already bought Rio for £30m in 01/02, City spent £35m on Robinho in 2008. Even Spurs bought Darren Bent for just over £20m
We were always a few million shy of purchasing some great players that we were unquestionably after. Xabi Alonso didn't happen because the Gareth Barry transfer to Liverpool fell through, we couldn't afford to pay the extra 1/2m for the likes of Juan Mata, and we missed out on Hazard because he was simply out of our price bracket and had to settle for Gervinho and other bargain basement, terrible purchases
Our finances were tricky in that era as we could allow a gradual wage increase (hence why some shitters were on high wages) but couldn't pay outright fees, large instalments also being a difficulty. We're still somewhat hamstrung now in regards to finances, our projected budget in the window is just under £50m. Add to that Arsene gradually lost the understanding of the French market due to everyone else fishing in there and without a David Dein figure next to him he didn't want to pull the trigger on some potential moves.
I think up until the 2010's we somewhat overachieved with the talent and money at our disposal, we should've won the League in 07/08 really which in my opinion would've been one of the best years of Arsene's career given how little the squad cost to assemble and how young they are. After that he was losing his touch, some dodgy purchases with 'new' money and no-one really there to take the power out of the hands of an old bloke who had to manage 4 departments at once which simply isn't viable in modern football.
Tactically of course he lost his touch, that started after the 2005 FA Cup final when he decided that he didn't want to adjust and play negative football despite beating United in a game we thoroughly didn't deserve to win. He still had some standout moments tactically though, the entire 06 CL campaign with Senderos at CB with Flamini at left back holding the record for the longest run of clean sheets in the competition is a defensive masterclass that should go down in history. 07/08 produced imo the most aesthetically pleasing and entertaining football the Prem has ever seen. Even the FA Cup win against Chelsea was a perfect team performance in which he should be credited.
Overall I don't think it was 8 years of shit, we've had some success which some clubs - cough spurs cough - would dream about, f**k me even Liverpool would've probably have loved to have 3 FA Cups in that time than taking an L in every final they've faced with a manager whose supposed to be a tactical genius. I'm not defending Arsene in the last few years because he was genuinely awful as a coach, we looked utterly clueless, but I think fast forward 5/6 years history will look back at it not being
TOO bad. It's just because it's the first season that he's gone, we still have awful memories of that f***ing blue kit from last season. When he's sitting at the Emirates watching us play when he's near his 80's and a statue outside the ground, he'll only be remembered for the great things he did for Arsenal and how he changed the club forever imo
just some sour taste left in some people's mouthes which is totally understandable
by Ach » Sat Nov 10, 2018 1:51 pm 
